Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Has $697.46 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,045,143 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 113,732 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $697,464,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.5% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,926 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,132,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 19.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,355,000 after buying an additional 3,271 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 27.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 17,438 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,670,000 after buying an additional 3,762 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% in the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 109,720 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $16,801,000 after buying an additional 7,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.0% during the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $150.59 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $170.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.94. The stock has a market cap of $108.73 billion, a PE ratio of 41.49, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.